Ep 576: How Silk & Snow Scaled to 10 Retail Stores by Focusing on Profitable CAC
DTC Podcast
Functional vs aspirational buying
Albert contrasts mattress as a functional 'grudge' buy with home goods' aspirational appeal and marketing shift.
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Albert Chow built Silk & Snow in the shadow of the DTC mattress wars—but instead of racing to burn VC cash, he played the long game. Today, Silk & Snow has grown into a full home brand with 10 retail stores, a thriving Canadian customer base, and a strong U.S. expansion roadmap.
For DTC founders scaling from $5M to $50M...
- Why they skipped the mattress arms race and leaned into vertical integration
- How bundling less (and planting trees instead) saved $1.3M
- What they learned scaling from 1 to 10 retail stores in a year
- The metrics they track now that ROAS is irrelevant
- Why launching a sofa was more about customer affinity than furniture
Who this is for: Operators scaling past one SKU or one channel—and looking for a sustainable path to growth.
What to steal:
- Bundling with purpose (optional tree planting vs. free stuff)
- Bottom-up brand building: low-funnel mastery first
- How to use DTC data to drive brick-and-mortar strategy
Timestamps
00:00 Organic growth and surviving the DTC mattress crash
02:00 Entering the crowded mattress market in 2017
04:00 Why Silk and Snow became a full home brand
06:00 Factory-first supply chain and Canadian manufacturing
08:00 Launching with Kickstarter and early traction
10:00 The 2019 DTC apocalypse and sustainable growth
12:00 Expanding beyond mattresses into sleep accessories
14:00 Functional vs aspirational buying in home goods
16:00 Becoming a multi-channel retailer
18:00 Using customer data to choose store locations
20:00 Canada vs US growth strategy
22:00 Building brand from the bottom of the funnel
24:00 Replacing bundles with tree planting
26:00 Performance marketing roots and early Google
28:00 Shifting into awareness and brand media
30:00 Why ROAS isn’t the real growth signal
32:00 Retail partnerships and staying DTC
34:00 Black Friday for big-ticket home products
36:00 Fulfillment, returns, and sustainability
38:00 Repeat customers and long-term LTV
40:00 Sleep Country acquisition and retail scale
42:00 Vancouver store and physical retail strategy
Hashtags
#DTC #EcommercePodcast #SilkAndSnow #AlbertChow #DTCBrands #HomeGoods #MattressIndustry #BrandBuilding #RetailStrategy #DirectToConsumer #EcommerceGrowth #StartupPodcast #FounderStory #CanadianBrands #PerformanceMarketing #Omnichannel #RetailExpansion #DTCpodcast
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